Still trying new recipes

The two new recipes I’ve tried in the last few days have been last-minute thoughts. The first was the Chocolate Egg Cream from "Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger." I’ve been fighting a cold and haven’t had much of an appetite, something cold & fizzy sounded good. I don’t know if it’s an East Coast thing, because I had never heard of an egg cream until I started watching cooking shows. Anyway, it’s milk and seltzer water, with chocolate syrup poured in while everything is stirred so it’s frothy. I used Hershey’s Special Dark so mine looks like coffee. And I had more foam (all the way to the top of the glass) but by the time I walked across the kitchen to where there was more light, and grabbed the camera, it had deflated. I like chocolate but didn’t much care for this concoction. Maybe the not-so-healthy version would taste better, this one seemed thin.

Then tonight I needed a quick side dish so I tried couscous with carrot and cilantro from the March 2008 issue of "Everyday Food." There’s no green in mine, since I didn’t have cilantro and Don doesn’t like it anyway. The carrot made it look fancier than just plain. Definitely a recipe to keep in mind for a last-minute and FAST side dish.

I’m so sick of all the election phone calls we’ve been getting!!!!

Now I have 3 days left to the month and 1 more new recipe to try, to keep the "5 new recipes a month" trend going. Back to reality. The buzz from the Manilow concert was fun while it lasted.